Hiroshi Yamauchi

Hiroshi Yamauchi (7 November 1927-19 September 2013) was a Japanese businessman who served as President of Nintendo from 1949 to 31 May 2002, succeeding Sekiryo Kaneda and preceding Satoru Iwata. In 2008, he was Japan's richest person with a net worth of $7,800,000,000.

Biography
Hiroshi Yamauchi was born on 7 November 1927 in Kyoto, Japan, and he worked in a war factory during World War II before studying law at Waseda University. He succeeded his grandfather Sekiryo Kaneda as president of Nintendo after he suffered a stroke in 1949, and he introduced the Western plastic trading card to the Japanese public. He also invented some toy guns and the "Love Tester" novelty device, and Nintendo became a major player in the toy market. By the late 1970s, the company began to move into video games, and Nintendo employee Shigeru Miyamoto invented "Donkey Kong" in 1981, becoming a smash hit for Nintendo. In 1983, Yamauchi created the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) console and transformed Nintendo into a video gaming company, and the company became the most famous video gaming company of all time. In 2002, he stepped down as he grew old, with Satoru Iwata replacing him as president. He died in 2013 in Kyoto at the age of 85.